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i UNITED STATES ATRNT @reinar GEORGE W. RIBBLE, OF H'YATTSVILLE, MARYLAND, ASsIGNOR or ONEIIALF To WILLIAM JAMES SLATER, or WASHINGTON, DIsrRIor or COLUMBIA.

f ELECTRIC SWITCHBOARD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 592,123, dated October 19, 1897. Application filed August 19, 1897. Serial No. 648,794. '(o model.)

To @ZZ whom t may concern: hanging in such a way as to engage the in- Be it known that I, GEORGE W. RIBBLE, a serted disk or plate and hold it securely citizen of the United States, and a resident against accidental displacement. of Hyattsville, in the county of Prince George The disk or plate may be of some iiexible 5 and State of Maryland, have invented certain or yielding material which will adapt it to 55 new and useful Improvements in Electric spring past and then expand beneaththe over- Switchboards,of which the followingisaspecihanging edge of the depression or recess, or fication. the material inwhich the depression or recess My invention relates to swit'chboards of the is formed may be of a suiiiciently resilient 1o exchange type employed for the purpose of nature that its walls or sides will yield upon 6o electrically combining or connecting any two the introduction'otV the disk or plate. of a large number of outlying conductors, or According v to one method of carrying out for combining or connecting said conductors my invention I employ a paper disk or plate with the different instruments in a station. upon which is written, printed, or otherwise I5 Thearrangementof such switchboards now applied any desired descriptive matter, and 65 generally in use, entails considerable confuwhich may be readilyintroduced into the desion unless the different terminals employed pression or cavity; and I preferably apply for making the electrical connections are suitover said disk or plate a disk of celluloid,horn,

. ably marked. The parts are not adapted to or other transparent and flexible material.

2o receive anything more than mere arbitrary According to another plan I may employ a 7o signs to distinguish them, so that they can be glass disk and depend upon expansion of the operated only by those who have familiarized side of the depression or recess to permit the themselves with the particular markings of edge of the glass to catch beneath the overeach switchboard. Moreover, there has been hanging edge of said depression or cavity.

2 5 no satisfactory Way of applying marks to them A further feature of my improved construc- 75 in a durable Inanner unless the part-s be ention consists in providing an opening leading graved or otherwise permanently inscribed. into the cavity beneath the disk or disks in- This method is undesirable for the reason that Y serted therein, in'such a manner that a small the parts are subject to wear and require freinstrument, such as a pin, may be introduced 3o quent repair, and when removed for this purand madeto engage beneath the removable 8o pose they are customarily shipped fromalarge portions to displace them at will. number of places to a general repair-shop and` My invention will be fully understood upon are seldom returned to the same place in reference tothe accompanying drawings, in which they were last in use, so that any markwhich I havel shown for the purpose of illus- 35 ings which they may have had are thereafterY tration a common form of jack, wedge, and 85 inappropriate. conducting-cord, such as are employed in tel- It is the object of my present invention to egraphic and otherswitchboards. devise means whereby the parts of the switch-` In said drawings, Figures l and 2 are perboard system herein referred to, or analogous spective v,views showing a wedge with and 4o apparatus, may be labeled with any desiredV without the conducting-cord with which it is 9o specilic inscription in a manner which will be customarily provided. Fig. 3 is a transverse permanent until intentionally removed and section'through the end of said wedge. Fig. at the same time ,removable or changeable at 4 is a longitudinalsection of the wedge. Fig. will. To accomplish this object, I form in or 5 is a perspective view of a portion of; a lseries 4 5 upon some parts of the terminals to be brought of jacks beneath which the wedgesare intro- 95 together, or some parts associated with them, duced when it is desired to make an electrical depressions or recesses which will receive connection. Fig. 6 is Ia transverse section disks or plates upon which any desired inthrough a marking-plate. v scription may be placed, the sides of the de- Itwill b e understoodthat in practice a large 5o pression or recesses being undercut or Overnumber of wedges 1 are employed, having an roo attaching-head 2 for the conducting-cord 3, which passes up through an end opening 4: and soldered upon the attaching end 5 of the conducting-strip 6. The'soldered connection and lower portion of the strip G are thereafter wrapped with binding 7. Each conducting-cord has connection with one of the series of electrical devices or conductors to be connected. A corresponding number of jacks are provided, mounted on a suitable base 8, and each comprising a jaw i), pivoted at 10, and having springs 1l, which hold the outer contact ends 12 upon the conducting-strips G of the wedges. lVhen the latter are inserted beneath them, these jacks are in electrical connection with other conductors or instruments to be thrown into circuit. Various combinations of circuits and connections are made by selecting various wedges and introducin g them beneath the jaws of appropriate jacks.

\Vith the necessity of quick work and avoidance of mistakes the desirability of having` the jacks and the wedges plainly marked will be appreciated. In order to mark these parts, I form in each of them an undercut depression 0r recess 13, beneath the overhanging walls 14 of which are held a marking-disk 15, upon which may be written any desired inscription, and a transparent covering-disk 1G. These disks are preferably of flexible material, which permits their being forced into the opening and permitted thereafter to expand beneath the walls, so thatthey will be held against displacement for any'length'of time. In the wedges I prefer to form such a cavity or depression on either side of the-head 2. In order to remove the disk, it is simply necessary to introduce a pin int-o the channel 17 (shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 4t) until the point comes beneath the disks, when they may be lifted out with ease. In marking the jacks the marking-plates 1S are formed with the same undercut depressions or cavities 13, into which are introduced the same disks described with reference to the wedge. In these parts, however, the disks are preferably removed by introducing an instrument through an opening 17, formed in the backs of the marking-plates 1S. To provide for marking and removing the plates 18, they are secured to the jaws by screws 19, so that they may be readily removed for manipulation.

IVhile I have described the use of a paper disk with a transparent covering to be secured in the depressions or recesses, I desire it understood that it will notJ be departing from the spirit of my invention if the transparent disk is omitted or if the inscription is placed directly upon the outer disk and the paper disk omitted. In the latter case the outer disk need not be transparent, but may be of a colnmon form of opaque Celluloid, or

the inscription may be written on the under side of a disk of transparent celluloid.

My invention is not restricted to any precise details, but consists in the general plan described whereby parts of electric switchboards or other like structures may be labeled by disks held removably in recesses or dcpressions formed in the parts to be labeled or in some parts associated with them.

A system of marking` as above described is cheap, convenient, effective, and durable, besides being changeable at will, and offers a complete offset for the difficulties which have heretofore been encountered in manipulating apparatus of the kind to which the invention applies.

Having thus described my invention, the following is what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1 In an electric switchboard or other like structure, a terminal or circuit-closing part formed with a depression or recess having undercut or overhanging sides, and a marking disk or plate iitting in said depression or recess, engaging beneath the sides and removably held thereby, as explained.

2. In an electric switchboard or other like structure, a terminal or circuit-closing part formed with an undercut depression or recess, and a disk or plate fitting beneath the overhanging edge of the depression or recess, made of flexible material to adapt it to be sprung into and out of the depression or recess past the overhanging edge, and adapted to receive a designating inscription, substantially as herein set forth.

3. In an electric switchboard or other like structure, a terminal or circuit-closing part formed with an undercut depression or rec-ess, adapted to receive and retain a marking disk or plate, and with a pin opening or channel through which an instrument may be introduced beneath the disk or plate for removing it, as explained.

l. In an electric switchboard or other like structure, a terminal or circuit-closin g wedge having an enlarged head, through which the conducting-cord is introduced; said head being formed on its faces with undercut depressions or recesses in which are secured marking-disks of flexible material; substantially as herein described.

5. In an electric switchboard, the combination with the jack beneath which the wedge is introduced, and the removable markingplate having an undercut depression therein and a flexible marking-disk in said depression; said plate having a pin-open ing through the back into said depression, as explained.

GEORGE lV. BUBBLE. lVitn esses:

Il. S. KNIGHT, Kari-ranma MANNING.

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